In The News

US Government Faces Pressure After Biggest Leak in Banking History

Paul Lewis February 9, 2015
A huge leak of undeclared bank accounts will prompt regulators and justice officials to explain the investigation’s status and punishments. The data suggest that suggests the Swiss offices of HSBC helped clients – hedge fund managers, athletes, fashion models, entertainers and royalty, including the king of Jordan – hide more than $100 billion in assets. So far, 61 of 106,000 clients have been...

Globalization Is in Peril, Bankers Say

Peter Coy December 10, 2014
The Institute of International Finance warns about restricted flows for capital in a report "Financial Globalization: Maximizing Benefits, Containing Risks." The report analyzes “the slowdown of cross-border flows and raises concerns that while the recent regulatory agenda should help to ensure a more stable and secure financial system, the extensive benefits from cross-border flows...

Seeds of a Modern Economic Empire

Nayan Chanda November 12, 2014
China is the world’s second largest economic power but lacks comparable voting power in the International Monetary Fund, which bases quotas mostly on GDP but also on openness, economic variability and international reserves. So China is throwing support behind another institution: The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, could “place China at the hub of a gigantic trade and economic web...

Central Asia Hurting as Russia’s Ruble Sinks

David Trilling and Timur Toktonaliev November 6, 2014
As Russia’s ruble declines in response to western imposed sanctions, Central Asian countries face rising inflation. The economies of countries like Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan rely on remittances from workers in Russia, notes an article originally published by EurasiaNet. As the value of these remittances decreases, prices of imports skyrocket, often by double digits. Turkmenistan,...

Debate Rages on Quantitative Easing’s Effect on Inequality

Chris Giles October 28, 2014
Since the global debt crisis of 2008, central banks in the US, Japan and the UK have embraced policies of quantitative easing, designed to expand currency supplies and keep interest rates low to encourage economic and job growth. But conservatives in the US and liberals in the UK claim the policies have led to rising income inequality for the advanced economies, reports Chris Giles for Financial...

Argentina Default Flashes Warning to Emerging Markets

Will Hickey September 9, 2014
Argentina, among the world’s top 25 economies, is trying to seek relief with bondholders and avoid being locked out of international credit markets. A US judge has sided with a minority of bondholders led by a US billionaire, blocking payments to the 90 percent who agreed to restructuring. For now, despite the judge’s ruling that all or none of the bondholders be paid, Argentina explores debt...

Washington and the Argentine Default

R. Viswanathan August 29, 2014
Argentina wants to pay bondholders who agreed to a restructuring settlement and withhold full payment to a few holdouts, but a US judge ruled that all or none must be paid. “Argentina has now taken the matter to the International Court of Justice, complaining that the decision of the U.S. judiciary is arbitrary, abusive, and beyond its jurisdiction besides ignoring the sovereign immunity of...